Secret Love, My Escape
by I Admit I'm A Disney Whore
Summary: McPriceley College AU: Kevin transfers colleges during his sophomore year. his roommate is active and always talking. the teachers could be better. the students are a hit or miss in Kevin's mind. there's just one blue eyed boy he can't shake from his mind. McPriceley, ChurchTarts, Cunnilungi and some McBladeley
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Arnold Cunningham hadn't moved form his position on his bed for a good hour. On one side, he had his laptop on split mode. The one side had a blank word document with just his name on the top of it. The other side had _Star Wars Episode V_ playing. He was supposed to be working on an English essay for Monday, but instead started to multitask with watching the flick and working at the same time until it got too one sided. He had his English notebook out at least, just doodling himself as Han Solo saving Princess Leia in her slave costume.

He was just about to draw the final details on her bikini when he heard a light knock at the door. He pressed the space bar on his laptop, pausing the movie, and stood from the bed to answer the door. Who was at the door was a bit of a surprise to Arnold. He had to look up to see the face of a man around his age, maybe a bit younger. He was slightly tan with brown hair and eyes. His dress was causal but sophisticated and matched his well groomed hair. It wasn't a normal sight to see at Arnold Cunningham's dorm room door.

"Hi," he gave Arnold an awkward smile, "Is this room… uh," he looked down at a piece of paper in his hand, "Room… 724?"

"You bet!" he boasted with a huge smile, "Who are you?"

"Uh, Kevin. Kevin Price," he nodded a little, "I'm your new roommate…? I just transferred from-"

"Administration told me about you!" he said loudly, and gave Kevin a huge hug, squishing him, "Hey there, roomie!"

Kevin had gotten very uncomfortable with the hug and started to stiff up, "Uh, you're a bit of a hugger, aren't you?" he needed to breath again in the next few minutes.

"Uh huh! Only for my _best_ friends!" he answered with a smile a mile long, squeezing him tighter yet.

He had finally released Kevin and he tried not to look like he was gasping for air too much. Kevin coughed into his sleeve which helped his breathing regulate.

"Tight grip," he nodded to him, coughing again into his sleeve.

"Lemme help you with your bags, roomie," he offered.

"Oh, thank you," Kevin grabbed two of his bags and Arnold grabbed the other.

"What do you have in here? Bricks?" he laughed as he took it into the room.

Kevin smiled a bit as he saw Arnold put the bags on the bed adjacent of the messy one Arnold was on earlier.

"That's your side, and this is my side. But there aren't going to _be_ sides because best friends share everything!"

He nodded a few times trying to force a smile, "Riiiight," he paused before asking, "I didn't catch your name."

"Arnold Cunningham," he smiled widely and pointed to himself.

"Nice to meet you, Arnold. Do you mind showing me where th-" Kevin didn't have enough time to finish before Arnold started talking again.

"We are going to have so much fun! Write each other notes in class when we're supposed to be working, watching movies late at night! Hanging with my friends, because I do have friends! They're not my _best_ friends because you're my best friend!" he gasped, "You should meet my other friends!"

"I'd love to, Arnold, but I really need to find the library to get the books and-"

He was cut off again by Arnold grabbing his wrist and dragging him back out the door, "Come on! They should be in the commons room downstairs!"

"Arnold, I really need to get my books for classes that start tomorrow and- oh, alright, I didn't know running was involved now," surprisingly to Kevin, Arnold was quick.

He tensed up as he tried to get out of Arnold's death hold. If Arnold's friends were anything like him, he was in for a long three years. Arnold was moving too fast for Kevin to keep a mental map of where his dorm was. All he knew was it was somewhere on the third floor of hall four. Only twenty minutes there and he made one friend with the mental stability of a twelve year old boy. The worst thing was figuring out what his friends were like…

They finally reached the bottom floor and entered a very large area. It was like a rec room, but with more to do. Students worked on the comfy arm chairs and couches that were littered throughout the room. There were TVs here and there with various different channels on from sports to the newest episode of _Castle_. On the far side of the room there was a small café. On the opposite side of the room were various tables for ping pong and pool as well as dart boards. It was a room that never slept, even if the students in it were.

"Wow, lots of stuff going on in here," he finally wiggled out of Arnold's grip and rubbed his hand a bit to get feeling back in it.

"Yeah," Arnold nodded, "There's always something going on in here. I know my friends are in here somewhere… just, where…" he scanned the room before he found them.

Kevin looked around and wasn't paying attention to Arnold as he was trying to take everything in at once. Before he knew it, he felt his wrist being pulled at again and he was jerked along after Arnold as he ran across the room to a small sitting area next to the café.

Arnold stopped to a halt, and Kevin could finally catch his breath.

"Hi, Connor! Hi, Naba," Arnold smiled to his friends.

The two looked up and smiled to Arnold and Kevin.

"Who's this? The dark skinned girl asked with a brilliant smile.

Kevin offered her as normal as a smile as he could conjure up, "Kevin. Kevin Pr-"

"My best friend!" Arnold answered putting his arm around him and squeezed him, "He's my new roomie!"

Kevin tensed up again. So much touchy feely from someone he barely knew. Not cool. The boy with piercing blue eyes and auburn hair stood with a bright smile.

"Now, now, Arnold. You don't' want to break your new roommate," he gave Arnold a look.

Arnold released his friend and went to talk to Naba, who hadn't taken her eyes off of him since he and his new friend joined them. the boy led Kevin away from the two a little ways.

"Sorry about Arnold. He can be a little… you know," he laughed a bit, "I didn't catch your name."

"Uh, Kevin Price," he nodded with a small smile.

"Sophomore or freshman?"

"Sophomore. I'm only eighteen by my birthday is in November."

He smiled, "That makes sense. I'm pretty sure Arnold didn't say anything so I will. Welcome to hell for the next three years," he laughed, "But seriously, welcome. I'm Connor McKinley and the girl talking to Arnold is Nabulungi Hatimbi but we all call her Naba. We're also sophomores. How much has Arnold showed you around?"

"I literally just got here, like, twenty minutes ago," he laughed a bit, "I'm not even sure I can find my room again."

Connor smiled brightly, "If you need any help whatsoever, just lemme know. I'll be happy to help. Knowing Arnold, he'll forget to show you anything, so you can ask either Naba or I and we'll help you out."

He nodded, "Alright, thank you so much."

The two stopped talking and just kinda stared at one another for a moment. Kevin could get lost in Connor's icy eyes. Connor felt his mouth twitch up into a small smile as he envied over Kevin's perfect skin. _It's so smooth and I'm so jealous,_ he thought.

"Didn't either of you hear me?" Arnold asked a bit louder, getting right up between the two.

"What?" Kevin asked as Connor said, "Huh?" they broke away from their gazes and faced Arnold.

"Naba's been asking to see your schedule, Kevin!"

Kevin felt his face go a bit red, "I uh… left it back in the room. Sorry. I uh, have to find the library to get my books and stuff… first day of classes tomorrow, lots to do. It was nice meeting you both," he nodded and tensed up a bit, "…Bye," he gave them all an awkward little wave and dashed off in the opposite direction awkwardly.

The three watched him run off and out of the common room.

"That was kinda weird," Arnold said first.

"He seems very uncomfortable," Naba noted, "Did we do something wrong?"

Arnold shrugged. Connor piped up, "He's new, he'll probably loosen up in a week or so," he sat back down and picked up his pen to get back to his statistic homework.

"You were checkin him out, Connor," Arnold wiggled his eyebrows from under his glasses.

Connor rolled his eyes, "You _know_ I'm seeing someone. I wasn't checking him out, at all."

"Suuuuure you weren't," Arnold nudged his arm a bit.

Connor ignored him and went back to his work, putting the pen in his mouth sideways and held it with his teeth. Despite how adorable he was, Connor was seeing someone. Whatever the reason for his awkward departure, or how adorable he was, college always came first.

Kevin had to stop numerous times at maps around the school to make sure he was on the right track to the library. He had gotten everything he needed for his classes and gotten lost twice on the way back to his room. Eventually after a half hour, he was back in his room.

Thankfully to Kevin, Arnold hadn't returned to the room when he got back. That gave him time to finally get settled in. Kevin hadn't realized how much of a diverse wardrobe he had until he was organizing it into the empty drawers that were contently in the empty closet on his side of the room. There were tee shirts from concerts he'd gone to, graphic tees and then took a drastic jump to polo's and button downs. He smiled to himself as he organized everything into the drawers. Then he kinda just threw his pants into the bottom drawer. They didn't need to be sorted through, nor did he care what pants went with what shirt. After they were taken care of, he threw two pairs of converse and a pair of oxfords on the closet floor and lastly went the bag which had all the clothes in on the top shelf.

He went back over to his other bags and started to go through the one that Arnold had complained about earlier. Even thinking of the devil made him so up. Arnold had returned to the room and flopped back down on his bed.

"Why'd ya run off?" he asked. Not even a "hi" or a "did you find everything alright?". Just jump right into the awkward questions.

"I needed to get my stuff for tomorrow," he explained calmly.

"Were you checking Connor out?"

He tensed up by tried not to make it too obvious, "No, I wasn't. I zoned out, trying to think of what was on my schedule."

_Buy it, buy it, buy it…_ Kevin pleaded in his head.

"Oh! Ok, that makes sense!"

_Thank you, Lord!_

A small blue book fell out of the bag as Kevin took an armful of books with the same colour cover over to the closet. Arnold stretched himself to pick up the fallen book without standing up.

"_The Book of Mormon_? What's this?" Arnold asked.

Kevin turned around after he set the books from his hands on the floor. He walked over to him and took the book back.

"You're a Mormon? I didn't know that!"

"Well, yeah," he paged through it with his thumb, "Well, I was… I used to be a poster boy for Mormons, but now I'm more laid back and don't really follow the rules like I used too."

"Why?" he asked.

Kevin shrugged, "I woke up, I guess you could say," he took the book and went back to the others.

"I'm not religious. I tired to write my own stuff before! That didn't go over very well with my parents…"  
"You write?" Kevin asked over his shoulder.

"Used to. Now I mostly doodle and watch movies," he laughed loudly.

Kevin nodded and stood back up to get another armful of books.

"Why do all your books have the same cover?" Arnold finally stood and picked another one up from the bag once he moved back over to the closet.

"I may not be as religious as my parents, but they're strict about Mormon rules. We're not allowed to read anything that isn't approved by the church," Kevin explained, "All of these are just books I've read over the years and put the Book of Mormon cover on them so I wouldn't get in trouble from my parents."

Arnold's jaw hit the floor, "You read a lot!" he exclaimed.

Kevin chuckled, "I guess so."

"It would take me a year just to finish this one," Arnold picked up a thin book from his bag.

"Please be careful with that. The pages are falling out," Kevin stood quickly to get the book.

"But still, it would take me forever to read just one book," he handed Kevin the book, "You're crazy, buddy."

Kevin smirked a bit and took the rest of his books over to the closet. Arnold stretched his arms over his head and yawed.

"I'm goin out to get some dinner, wanna come or want me to bring ya back anything?" Arnold offered.

"Uh, no, but thanks for the offer though," Kevin smiled to him a bit.

"Alright, I'll be back later, best friend!" he smiled brightly before walking out of the room.

Quite finally came into the room. Kevin finished up with organizing his books alphabetically on top of the drawers. He picked up the one that Arnold picked up and set that on his night stand next to the alarm clock. At some point, he's start reading that.

Soon, his bed was finally clear of suitcases and junk and was now all nicely organized. Kevin flopped down onto the bed. The bed sheets and pillows made him feel at home again. He smiled and picked up the book he'd placed on his night stand and began to read.

In two hours; he'd made three friends, gotten lost four times, and felt like it was going to be a long three years to go. It was going to be stressful more than anything else compared to last year at his other college.

_Well, Price. College life has officially begun. "Welcome to hell" as Connor put it…_

Kevin smiled. Connor did have really nice eyes.

**(A/N: the first three chapters of this story were done by my lovely friend, Devon, on tumblr who allowed me to take over the fic when she kinda gave up on it. I've edited it of course. Thanks again for reading! R and R and you guys rock!)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Kevin was rudely awoken the next morning with "Hero" by Skillet blaring from his phone. He was in a sitting position and shut his phone alarm off. Recovering from his near heart attack, he calmly laid back down in his bed. He looked around the room, putting the pieces back together. College; new roommate, new classes, new friends, new everything.

Loud snores came from the other side of the room, which gave Kevin the indication that Arnold was still asleep. He checked his phone for the time. 6:27 AM. He sighed and decided to check his emails quickly before getting out of bed. 6:35 hit and Kevin finally rolled out of bed, taking his phone with him.

He checked his schedule before getting his clothes out for the day. He had two classes that day. Problem Stat and American Lit. He nodded approvingly to the schedule. An easy day for one Kevin Price. According to the schedule, his first class started at 9:15 which gave him enough time to get ready and find where the hell he was even going.

After staring blankly in his closet for something to wear, he finally grabbed a dark blue button down and a pair of black jeans. Clothes and phone in hand, he went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Kevin turned on the shower and let the water get hot and looked in the mirror. Despite the fact he didn't stay up to read that late, there were still bags under his eyes. He sighed and set down his phone and clothes on the toilet lid and stripped down to get in the shower.

_Day one,_ he thought to himself as his body connected with the hot water. It felt good on his skin from moving in all day yesterday. He was tired already but soon he'd be awake and alert for his first day of classes. At least, he hoped that would be the case.

He was in and out of the shower in about seven or so minutes. His body demanded the hot water to attempt to wake him up. He toweled off and got dressed. Boxers and pants went on first. Before he put his shirt on, he brushed his teeth and ran a comb through his hair, parting it just the way he likes it. It was still soaking wet, but it would dry eventually.

Once he was finally done in the bathroom, he put his shirt on and grabbed his pjs and phone and went back out into the main bedroom area. Kevin could still hear Arnold's loud snoring. After setting his pjs on the pillow of his unmade bed, he went over to Arnold's bed.

"Arnold," he spoke softly, "Arnold, wake up."

A moan escaped the larger man's mouth, "Whatthimeset?" he mumbled. After putting two and two together, he realized that he was asking what the time was.

Kevin checked his phone, "6:58"

Arnold rolled over and looked at Kevin with a tired, shocked face, "Why the hell are you up this early?"

"I always wake up early… Mormon habits die hard," he shrugged.

He rolled back over, "My first class don't start till 10…"

And with that, he fell back asleep in no time. Kevin went back over to his messy bed and flopped down. His body was telling him "sleep" but his mind was telling him "school". With a sigh, he sat back up and went over to his closet to get shoes and socks. He pulled on a pair of black socks and grabbed his blue converse and put them on. They were Tardis blue, as he's been told numerous times by various different Whovians.

Kevin checked his phone again and saw it was only 7:06. He sighed, there was no way he could waste anymore time in his room. He gathered up his messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. Before he took a step out the door, he back tracked and grabbed his reading glasses off his night stand, put them on his head and then walked out of the dorm room.

As he ventured down to the commons room, he heard various sounds of getting ready in the morning through the doors. Hair dryers, showers, arguing roommates, alarm clocks and so on.

A bad habit of Kevin's was letting his mind wander off. He stopped dead in his tracks. _Where the heck are my classes?_ He thought. Kevin let out an aggravated groan. He had no idea where either of the classrooms were he had for that day.

"Kevin!"

Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of his name. He turned and saw Connor jogging to him with a smile.

"How're you doing on this fine morning?" he asked when he was finally facing the taller man.

Kevin shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, "Alright. I probably should've checked a map or something to see where my classes are."

"I thought you did that yesterday when you kinda ran off?" Connor asked.

"Uh, no… I didn't think that far ahead," he laughed awkwardly, "I wish they'd give new students a day or so to find all their classes or something of that nature. Not just hand them a schedule the first day they arrive and tell you to be in class that day."

Connor smiled, "I keep forgetting that you're new here!"

"I've been here less than twenty four hours, how can you forget that I'm new?" Kevin laughed.

He shrugged with a smile, "I dunno. It just seems like you fit in already. So, what classes do you have to suffer through today?"

"Problem Stat and American Lit."

"When do you have Prob Stat?"

"Uh, 9:15 with Miss Conrad," he strained to remember everything.

Connor smiled, "Same here!" he then nudged Kevin's arm, "See, and you were worried about not finding your classes."

Kevin smiled, "What about American Lit then?"  
"Who do you have it with and what time?"

"Uh…" he paused, trying to remember, "Mr. DiLanzo at 11:30."

He nodded, "I don't think any of us are in that class. What are you majoring in?"

"Don't laugh."

"I won't."

"I'm an English major."

He smiled, "Really?"

"Yeah…" he nodded awkwardly.

"That's awesome," he nodded to him, "Now, we have a while to kill before class starts, do you wanna hang out before hand? I can show you around."

"I'd like that. Thank you," he smiled to him.

"But of course, Kevin!" he smiled brightly, "Let's get sugared up and then I'll show you the campus."

Kevin laughed, "Alright."

The two walked down to the commons room. There were a few kids sleeping down there from an all night of studying. A few others were awake and still studying, with a few cups of coffee in front of them. The two ordered some sort of caffeinated beverage and headed out to the campus grounds.

It was a beautiful morning in early October. Clear sky, light breeze throwing about leaves and everything smelled fresh. Connor went off about the different halls and dormitories. He listened intently to the smaller ones words, completely not catching onto anything he was saying. After about twenty minutes or so of walking around, the two sat down under a tree.

"Well?" Connor asked with a smile.

"Well, what?"

"Do you have everything down?"

Kevin nodded, "Not even a little bit."

Connor couldn't help but laugh, "Oh my gosh, Kevin! We just spent twenty minutes walking around and you have no idea where we are?"

He shook his head, "Not the slightest."

"Alright, pop quiz," he smirked, "Walk me back to our dorm."

"Alright small one," Kevin stood up, "You're on."

Connor laughed and looked at him with a "bitch please" look, "Whoa, 'small one'? I am at least a year old than you!"

Kevin smiled, "So what? I'm at least four inches taller than you!"

"Which means what to me? I'm still older!"

"Did I anger the little ginger?"

Connor laughed and smacked his arm playfully, "I am not ginger! My hair is auburn!"

"Connor. It's ginger."

"Fine, Mr. Smart-Ass. Where's our dormitory? Find it in less than ten minutes. If you find it in that amount of time, I'll…" he paused for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers and pointed to him, "Find it in less than ten minutes and I will write down directions to each one of your classes."

"And if I don't?" he arched his eye brows.

"Then you, my friend, are on your own," he crossed his arms over his chest, "We have a deal?"

Kevin thought for a moment, "You're on, smallish one."

The two shook hands once. From there, Connor followed Kevin as he attempted to remember where the dorm was. Connor even had an alarm set on his phone for when the ten minutes were up.

Nine minutes and thirty four seconds later, the two were standing in front of their dormitory. Kevin, pleased with himself, smiled triumphantly to the smaller man. Connor smirked.

"Alright, I'll give you that one, Price. Even if you _did_ only have twenty six seconds left… I'll write down directions for you. Gimme your schedule in Prob Stat and I'll type them up for you. Do you have a cell phone?"

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket, "Yeah."

Connor took the phone from him and typed in his cell phone number, "There, now text me."

Hesitant, he nodded, "Airtight."

Kevin simply typed _hey _and sent it to the number he put in. a few seconds later, Connor's phone buzzed with the message. He added Kevin to his phone as Kevin did the same for Connor.

"There. You're now in my phone and I'm in yours. If you have any questions whatsoever, don't hesitate to text. I mean any kind of questions. School, directions, students you find adorable and want to know their relationship status," he laughed.

"I haven't been here twenty four hours and you're already trying to hook me up with someone? Wow, doesn't take long with you."

Connor laughed, "What? I don't know what goes through your head when we were walking around. For all I know, you could've found _the one_ and you would have no idea."

Kevin smirked, "Who knows."

Connor laughed again and nudged his arm, "Come on, andlet's get to class. You have to meet the teacher. She's the best!"

"Lead the way," Kevin gestured to him to lead the way.

Connor laughed and started off to the math section of the school. The whole way there, the two talked about their majors. Connor was going to be a theater major and is taking a lot of artsy classes like drama and public speaking. Kevin was quite impressed by his vast knowledge of theatrical history and just theater in general. His major felt so stupid next to Connor's.

The two joked around saying how Kevin should write a play for Connor to put on Broadway. From majors, the two switched subjects.

"Why'd you transfer, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Dad's job," he answered plainly, "It was either move out here with them or drive three hours a day just to come to school."

"Yikes. So where are you originally from?"

"Provo."

He nodded, "I used to live around there, but moved out here before my sister was born. Do you have siblings?"

Kevin laughed, "Yeah. Two younger brothers and a younger sister. Jack, Sarah and Evan; in that order."

"You being the… oldest?"

"Yup."

"Damn. I only have a little sister. What's it like having a huge family like that?"

"Loud."

Connor laughed, "That's one way of looking at it."

"You asked."

The two talked a little more before they reached their math room. They were about ten minutes early to class, but the teacher was sitting at her desk, going over her lesson notes.

"Hello, Cathy," Connor smiled brightly, "How's my favorite teacher this morning?"

"McKinley, you're here a bit early. And I'm just wonderful," she smiled, looking him over with bright green eyes, "How's my favorite little ginger?"

"Excited. Cathy, this is Kevin Price. He's a transfer," Connor didn't hesitate introducing him to his favorite teacher.

She smiled again and stood, removing her glasses from her nose to her head, "Hello. I'm Miss Conrad. Connor here calls me Cathy. Some students do, depends on their mood. Have you taken Problem and Statistics before?" she offered her hand for Kevin to shake.

"I did," he nodded, and shook her hand, "At my other college I did, yes."

She took her hand back so it wasn't awkward and sat back down, "Luckily Connor brought you here early. Since I don't know what you covered over at your other college, I'll print out the notes we've been taking so far so you can go over them. Sorry to disappoint, but we're having a test next week on the materials. Would you be able to take it if I gave you the notes today?"

"No, that's perfectly fine, ma'am."

Connor nudged his ribs sharply, "She hates being called 'ma'am'."

"Oh, McKinley. Be nice to the new students now."

"But I am, Cathy," he smiled sweetly to her.

"Don't worry about him; Connor wouldn't hurt a butterfly," Cathy smiled to him, "Lemme just run to the printer to get your notes."

Kevin smiled, "Thank you."

Connor grabbed Kevin's messenger bag strap and pulled him back to the seats. The two sat toward the back of the room, the third to last row. Connor pulled out his laptop from his backpack and started it up for the day.

"As promised, I will type up your directions. Do you have your schedule?" Connor asked.

Kevin nodded and handed him a piece of paper with his schedule printed on it, "Here."

"Thank you," he smiled and studied over it a few times. He smirked, "We have astronomy together, as well as AP History with Naba. You also have English Lit with Naba. How many friggin English based classes can a guy take?"

"Four," he laughed.

"Jesus…" he laughed, "Surprisingly, you have no classes with Arnold. I don't know how you want to take that or not."

"I don't know how to take him in yet," Kevin said honestly, "He's a nice guy, just…"

"Loud? Geeky?... Loud?"

Kevin laughed, "All of the above?"

"Just watch out for him. He's a pathological liar, so don't listen to anything he says. If you want to know if something is true or not, just text me or Naba."

Kevin nodded, "Thanks a lot, Connor."

"Sure," he smiled.

_He's lucky he has a great smile or else I'd be weirded out by how much this guy smiles,_ Kevin thought, _them eyes and that smile… I could get used to having a lot of classes with him. Well Price; day one, class one._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The bell rang, excusing the children from their lectures. Connor and Kevin gathered up their things and left the lecture hall. Cathy handed Kevin the notes that he needed for the test next week before they walked out of the room. She offered to help him out if he needed any tutoring. Instead, Connor offered to tutor Kevin if he needed help.

The two finally stepped out of the main hall. A cool fall breeze greeted them as they exited the hall.

"I thought that class would never end," Connor complained with a small laugh.

Kevin laughed, "It wasn't too bad."

"I typed out about half of your directions," Connor explained, "I'll finish them during my public speaking class."

"Do you have to go now?"

"What, are you trying to get rid of me?" he nudged his arm with a smile.

"No, no, no! I was just wondering," Kevin insisted.

"I'm kidding. I actually don't have to be there till noon. Besides it's only," he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, "10:45."

"Right."

He smiled, "Since you need to make friends, I think I can help you out with that."

Kevin, confused, gave him a weird look, "I've been here less than twenty four hours. How can you help me make friends?"

"Because, I know a few guys in your next class, my best friend being one of those guys. It won't kill you to talk to other people ya know."

"You don't know that for sure," Kevin smirked.

Connor laughed, "You're funny. Come on," he grabbed Kevin's arm, "They should be hanging around the hall by now. They always are there early."

"_This_ early?" Kevin questioned, being drug away after Connor.

"They talk with the teacher sometimes," he tugged on his arm to make him hurry up, "Now hurry up!"

Kevin rolled his eyes with a smile and trudged along after him. The two traveled across campus to the English section of the school. Kevin did his best to mental note everything and where everything was. It was a bit hard for him to pay attention to his surroundings as Connor casually pulled him along and kept talking all the way though.

They had finally reached the English hall and went inside. The two were greeted by arguing. As they entered the hall, they saw it was empty with only three students in the back talking quiet loudly. They sounded louder due to the echo in the hall. The group of students was arguing over the new _William Shakespeare's Star Wars_ book.

Connor laughed at their argument and turned to Kevin, "They fight a lot, but they're nice guys."

Smiling, Connor looked up to the guys and yelled, "Poptarts, I found a new friend for you!" he yelled.

The guys stopped arguing and faced the front of the hall to see Connor and Kevin. Kevin felt himself start to lock up and become uncomfortable.

"Seems like a geek," one of the guys called. He had on a Foo Fighters tee shirt, "Nice going!"

"Schrader, be nice! He's new, it's his first day."

The student, Schrader, smiled, "That means we can be extra mean to him."

Another one with a black tee shirt on and pink vans elbowed him, "Shut up would ya."

Connor laughed, "Well, I'm off to my next class," he looked at Kevin, "I'll give you the directions later then?"

"Sure," he nodded.

He looked to his friends and called, "Play nice, boys!"

"We will," they said in unison.

"Oh!" the guy in the pink vans called, "Say hi to Steve for me!"

"Shut up, Chris!" Connor turned bright red and exited the hall in a hurry, desperately trying to hide his smile.

The three in the back burst into laughter. Kevin stood at the bottom of the lecture hall as the three friends in the back laughed at Connor's speedy exit. The one in the pink vans, Chris, looked down at Kevin.

"Hey, come on up here, we don't bite," he said, a few laughs in between.

Kevin nodded and walked up to the group in the back of the room. They smiled kindly to him as he sat down next to Schrader who was sitting by himself in his row.

"What's your name?" Schrader asked with a smirk. Kevin got a bit of a closer look at him. He seemed like the rocker type, with a thin layer of black eyeliner under his eyelids.

"Kevin," he nodded awkwardly.

Chris smiled, "I'm Chris, Connor's best friend."

The other one who's stayed silent, wearing a Chiefs shirt smiled, "I'm James," he pointed to Chris, "That one's boyfriend."

"I'm Eric," Schrader nodded, "No ones boy toy."

Kevin smiled at Eric's comment, "Nice to meet you guys."

"How'd you meet Connor?" Chris asked.

"My roommate introduced me to him."

They all exchanged looks of confusion, "Who's your roommate?" James asked.

"Uh..." he tried to remember his last name, "Arnold… something. I can't remember his last name."

"Cunningham?" Eric offered.

"Yes! Arnold Cunningham."

"He's your roommate?" James asked.

"Does he have a bad rep or something?" Kevin was a bit confused.

They all shook their heads before Chris started to explain, "He's a pathological liar. A really nice guy, just a liar."

Kevin nodded, "I got the warning from Connor."

They all nodded in understanding. Then, they went to start explaining everything Kevin needed to know about the class and what he needed to catch up on. They were in the middle of reading A _Clockwork Orange_ and how they were analyzing it and the note taking that went with it.

One at a time, each of them showed Kevin their note books and sticky notes from the book. For a small book, they took a lot of notes for it. To Kevin's surprise, Eric took the most notes out of all of them. The rocker-esk guy of the group had the most done for the book.

From school, they dove into talking about themselves. Eric was going to be an English major in case his band didn't work out. That was only if his band didn't work out. Kevin was surprised to hear that he had his future well planned out. If his band didn't take off by the time he was 27, he was going to drop it and become an English teacher.

Chris scoffed at Eric's plan, then went onto explain that he was taking all hard classes so he could be a museum curator when he graduated college. He loved to learn and knew all sorts of fun facts about any given topic no matter what it was. He continued on by saying he already had a job as an intern at one of the local museums and had to go after their class ended.

With a smile, James kissed Chris's cheek, gushing about how much he loved brainy guys. Then he went onto say how he'd love to be a professional baseball player, but couldn't because he wasn't good enough, or so he thought in his mind. So he would settle for teacher and baseball coach at a high school or middle school.

Kevin felt stupid when it finally came his turn to explain his future. He didn't really have much planned out. He wanted to major in English that was for certain, but he didn't know what to do with it afterwards.

Then Kevin finally brought up something he'd been wondering about since Chris made the comment, "Who's Steve? The guy you said for Connor to say hi to for you?"

Eric and James both looked at Chris to explain. Chris sighed and looked at Kevin, "Steve is Connor's boyfriend."

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing that they're together," Kevin said with a light laugh.

"That's because it is," James added.

He stopped laughing, "Oh."

"Steve isn't the right kinda guy for Connor. Connor's to fragile and breakable for a guy like Steve Blades."

"Steve Blades? That sounds…"

"Menacing?" Eric suggested.

"Torturous?" James asked.

"God awful?" Chris questioned.

Kevin nodded with wide eyes, "All the above."

Chris rolled his eyes, "Steve isn't right for him… at all… I don't know what that boy sees in Steve, but he won't listen to any of us when we try to tell him to break up with him. He's probably just scared or something."

"Scared of what?"

"Scared that he could possibly hurt him," James answered for Chris.

"Is it an… abusive… relationship?"

Chris nodded, "Yeah. It's sad really. Connor's just too afraid to break up with him."

"That's… sad…" Kevin responded, kinda sad himself.

Eric scoffed, "I keep offering to beat him up for Connor, but he keeps saying no…"

"Because he knows you'd do it, Eric," James responded lightly.

He nodded, "Damn right."

Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher walked in. Kevin got a good look at him. In his own opinion, he looked liked one of the accountants in _the Producers_ who always sang "unhappy". The man had slick black hair that was parted to the left, glasses, plain blue tie and a nice shirt.

"Mr. DiLanzo, we have a new student!" Chris called.

"Send him down," he answered in a monotone voice.

They all nodded to Kevin to go down to meet him. He was a bit awkward going back down the stairs as he headed up to his desk. The teacher met Kevin's gaze just as he approached his desk.

"And you are…?"

"Kevin. Kevin Price."

He nodded, "Kevin Price. Kind of a bland name."

"Excuse me?" Kevin was a little confused with what he was saying.

"What is it? Two syllables?"

"Three, sir."

He nodded, "Right. Well, I'm sure that the trouble makers in the back filled you in with what we're doing, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

Mr. DiLanzo handed him a copy of the book and Kevin quickly denied it. DiLanzo gave him a look over his glasses.

"I uh, have a copy back in my dorm room."

"I'll mental note that, but you'll need the book today. Bring it back to my desk at the end of the lecture."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I except that you are up to pace with the rest of the class by the next time we meet."

Kevin nodded.

"You are excused."

Kevin nodded again and headed back up the stairs. _This is going to be a fun class…_ he thought. _Day one, class two, get ready for an hour of half of hell…_ Kevin sat down next to Eric again and he started taking notes on the book in his notebook. The others let him be and went back to arguing over something. Kevin didn't know what, he was tuning them out.

One thing he couldn't get off his mind was Connor and this Steve Blades fellow. It bothered him, and he didn't know why…


End file.
